Clay Fowler

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UCLA

LOS ANGELES >> Bryce Alford experienced his lowest moment at UCLA nine months ago when a plane towed a banner over his Westwood apartment calling for his father to be fired.Five days ago, he and Bruins basketball coach Steve Alford were ironically on a plane when father and son shared one of their highest moments together. And it had nothing to do with altitude.The team halted take-off to celebrate the...

UCLA

Saturday’s win at Kentucky legitimized the UCLA basketball team on a variety of fronts. Offensive numbers compiled against a schedule previously ranked the 268th most difficult in the country, according to Kenpom.com, certainly deserved to be questioned. But for a scoring average that ranks second of 351 Division I teams to not suffer in a trip to Rupp Arena went a long...

UCLA

UCLA was handsomely rewarded by the poll voters for its victory over Kentucky on Saturday in the program’s first game ever in historic Rupp Arena.The Bruins moved up nine spots to No. 2 in the Associated Press poll, their first time in nine years to be ranked as high as...

UCLA

UCLA and Kentucky, two of college basketball’s most storied programs, are comparable in almost every era.Except the current one.Kentucky has become the country’s premiere destination for one-and-done freshmen, producing three trips to the Final Four and one national championship in the last six years.UCLA has yielded its share of NBA draft picks during the...

UCLA

There is one member of the UCLA basketball team, in particular, not in danger of looking ahead to Saturday’s colossal game at No. 1 Kentucky.Ike Anigbogu has played 18 minutes of college basketball, not one in Pauley Pavilion. There isn’t anything the freshman center is looking forward to more than Wednesday’s game against UC Riverside.Anigbogu is the third high-profile player in UCLA’s freshman class that has so far produced the

UCLA

ANAHEIM >> Bryce Alford’s volume-shooting days are over.Seven games into his senior season at UCLA, he is making each shot count. Alford buried a clutch 3-pointer with 1:11 to play in the Wooden Legacy championship game, the decisive basket in UCLA’s 74-67 win over Texas A&M at Honda Center Sunday night. Freshman point guard Lonzo Ball, who tallied 16 points and 10 assists on his way to earning the Wooden Legacy tournament MVP, is the type of...

Sports

Pop quiz, hotshot.You are representing a billion-dollar franchise to an entire generation. You have mere seconds to craft 140 characters for millions of people awaiting your proclamation, and they better form something captivating.What do you do?“It takes a lot of confidence,” Dodgers social media coordinator Matt Mesa said. “I think I read things three to four times before I hit send. It’s...

UCLA

Thanksgiving dinner followed by basketball in the backyard. Sounds like a down-home family holiday for No. 14 UCLA, which kicks off the Wooden Legacy in Fullerton Thursday night.The Bruins don’t have to travel far for their only tournament of the season, but they will be holed up in a hotel with the other seven teams from Thursday until Sunday’s championship game.UCLA’s strength of schedule,...

UCLA

LOS ANGELES >> There are plenty of things easing UCLA’s ability to share the basketball.Averaging a nation-leading 105.8 points per game, there are plenty of baskets to go around.The four-guard lineup that has appeared in each game includes three players comfortable running the point and a third averaging a career-high 4.8 assists per game.Sophomore Aaron Holiday’s No. 1 reason...

UCLA

LOS ANGELES >> One game into the season, Bryce Alford correctly predicted Lonzo Ball’s first No. 1 play on Sportscenter’s nightly Top 10 segment.Before UCLA’s 114-77 win against Long Beach State at Pauley Pavilion was over, the senior guessed his freshman teammate may have tripled the feat on Sunday night alone.“I was talking to T.J. (Leaf) and I was like, dude, he might be one, two and three tonight,” Alford said. “It’s...